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Book Overview

Assembling Tomorrow explores how to use readily accessible tools of design to both mend the mistakes of our past and shape our future for the better. It explores the intangibles, the mysterious forces that contribute to the off-kilter feelings of today, and follows up with actionables to help you alter your perspective and find opportunities in these turbulent times. Mixed throughout are histories of the future, short pieces of speculative fiction that illustrate how things go haywire and what might be in store if we don’t set them straight. 


Grab the entire set

Expand your library with this collection of 12 books from celebrated d.school educators. Discover activities, stories, and tools focused on topics from social change and reflection to prototyping and telling visual stories with data.

And, we scored you a discounted rate for the whole set!

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Resources

Put Assembling Tomorrow to work right away in your classroom! This free guide will help you run “The Layers of Design” activity with students in your class.

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Looking for an activity to do with your team? Understanding the layers of design helps us to understand the how and why behind a product or thing. This is a free guide to one of the book's exercises, “The Layers of Design.”

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Scott and Carissa give us a quick look into what Assembling Tomorrow is all about and who should read it (spoiler alert: it’s everyone!).

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Authors and contributors

Carissa Carter

Author

Carissa Carter is a designer, geoscientist, and the academic director at the Stanford d.school. She guides the development of the d.school’s pedagogy, leads its instructors, and shapes its class offerings. She is the author of The Secret Language of Maps: How to Tell Visual Stories with Data and teaches design courses on emerging technologies, climate change, and data visualization. Her work on designing with machine learning and blockchain has earned multiple design awards, including Fast Company Innovation and Core 77 Design awards.

Scott Doorley

Author

Scott Doorley is a writer, designer, and the creative director at the Stanford d.school. He has overseen everything from books to workspaces to digital products and initiatives focused on the future of learning and design. He co-wrote the book Make Space: How to Set the Stage for Creative Collaboration and teaches courses in design communication. His work has been featured in museums from San Jose to Helsinki and in publications such as Architecture + Urbanism and the New York Times.

Armando Veve

Illustrator

Armando Veve is an award-winning illustrator and 2023 Pew Fellow whose drawings have appeared in The New Yorker, National Geographic, Scientific American, MIT Technology Review, and Wired, among other publications. He studied illustration at the Rhode Island School of Design and currently resides in Philadelphia.